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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
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Daily Blah for... Saturday, November 16, 2002
A Lust For (Second) Life
No sooner do I finish dismissing a fictional virtual world than I run headlong into the genuine article (a real virtual world, that is -- I may have just hammered another nail into the coffin of the English language there, but you get the idea). It's called Second Life, it's coming next year from San Francisco-based Linden Lab, and although nominally an online game, it's also the most earnest and appealing digital pursuit I've seen in a long time. This is way beyond Everquest. This is a world where the emphasis is on creation, not destruction; where connections, community spirit and self-expression are rewarded. You build houses (or shops, or amusement parks, or discos or whatever takes your fancy), you construct whatever funky furnishings and machines you have skill enough to design, you buy and sell, you can at any time change your clothing and bodily appearance to any one of a billion possible permutations. You can fly. You see everything, including yourself, in 360-degree 3-D. When you meet others, they indicate they are instant messaging you with a comic little mime of typing on a keyboard. The clouds and the wind that bends all trees are run by chaos theory. The sunsets are delightful.
The result is the most intensely creative and neighborly environment I've experienced since Burning Man. (It helps that as many women as men are playing the game, at least at the testing stage.) It's heartwarming to see people walking around in the most outrageously original bodies and costumes, taking little subconcious fashion cues from each other. Wings, apparently, are becoming very popular. It's fascinating to see people setting up little shops, creating an entire economy out of thin air (and yet it's not all about capitalism; Second Life automatically skims property taxes off your earnings and doles out welfare payments to all inhabitants every week). And it's voyeuristically delicious to be able to walk in their homes. In Second Life, nobody locks their door.
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